On the back-end of a back-to-back against Claremont Baseball, Ayala took them on again on May 1 after previously shutting them out 8-0. Sealing this series against Claremont would secure Ayala’s Palomares League victory, accompanied by an undefeated 10-0 record.
Just a few days before Ayala’s last league game of the regular season, Ayala overpowered Claremont baseball, not allowing a single run, as the efforts of Eric Hernandez (12), Jalen Valenzuela (12), and Dylan Wood (12) led to this much-anticipated victory. Things wouldn’t be much different this time around, with Ayala’s talented defense only letting up a single run.
At the beginning, the first run of the game wouldn’t come until the third inning, with Ayala’s 2-0 being the first numbers seen on the scoreboard. The opposite would be true for Ayala, however, for Claremont would spell disaster as they gave up eight total runs in the fourth and fifth. Claremont’s attempted response to Ayala’s oncoming domination was their only run, coming in the fifth inning, bringing the score to 10-1 Ayala.
Ayala would eventually slow down with only a run in the sixth inning. This time, there would be no David versus Goliath storybook ending for Claremont, with the final score ending 11-1. Ending the two-game series against Claremont with back-to-back dominations and bringing Ayala’s winning streak to 9 games.
Ayala’s total batting average was .414, for over 36 plate appearances. Meaning that almost half of the appearances resulted in a hit. An impressive statistic that highlights Ayala’s consistency in hitting the ball this season. Ayala has held a .358 batting average out of 797 plate appearances , more than the national average in high school of 0.280 in 510 plate appearances. Ayala has constantly shown their unchanging nature to manage to put the ball in play this season, backed up by Ayala’s Elijah Duarte’s (12) leading average of .446. For Claremont, they had a much harder time putting the ball in play, with just an average of .130 out of 26 times their players batted. Consistent with their lower than the national team batting average this season.
With just a few games remaining, Claremont sits at 16-9 with a fourth spot in the Palomares league of 4-6. Meanwhile, Ayala has won the Palomares League, which may secure them the much-needed momentum and confidence to be able to succeed in the upcoming postseason. Ayala now looks forward to battling against Mira Costa High School and taking on the South Hill Huskies, whom they beat 15-4 earlier in the season, to finally wrap up the rest of the regular season.
